It was announced recently that, after numerous calculations, the local economic impact of June鈥檚 Great Plains Annual Conference was an outstanding $841,280.
鈥淲e鈥檙e pleased to see that this event was beneficial for our local economy,鈥� said Dr. Matt Thompson, KWU president. 鈥淲hether we鈥檙e hosting major events, welcoming students back to campus or growing our workforce, our goal is always to聽make positive contributions to our community.聽We are proud that KWU is a hub for athletic, music, theatre, and community-based events.聽The annual conference was a great example of this, and we look forward to discussions regarding hosting it again soon.鈥�
More than 800 hotel rooms were reserved as part of the event, in addition to food and other expenses.聽Further, local retailers and vendors were involved in making this event a success.聽It is believed the聽nearly million聽figure marks the largest single-event local economic impact figure in KWU history.
鈥淥ur university has a long association with the United Methodist Church,鈥� said Thompson. 鈥淔rom the beginning, KWU and the聽Church have been intertwined. It鈥檚 only fitting that,聽after nearly 140 years,聽the largest economic impact event our university聽hosted聽this year聽was a UMC event.鈥�
KWU projects several key events to have a notable economic impact for Salina this academic year, including the KCAC baseball and softball championships. In past conference championship events in those sports have approached 1,000 combined tickets sold, not including the 20-40 student-athletes involved, per team.
鈥淎ll of us at KWU are excited to host numerous events on campus and throughout the region this year,鈥� said Thompson. 鈥淲e hope everyone in the community makes plans to be a part of an upcoming Coyote event.鈥�
